Product architecture and firm relations: The changing face of product development in United States auto.

摘要

This dissertation first investigates how attempts at institutional imitation evolved new hybrid approaches to supplier involvement in design in U.S. auto based on interviews conducted from 1998–2001. Although the U.S. auto industry began by copying the Japanese model of supplier management, the U.S. has moved toward a modified approach that seems to be inferior to the original. There is evidence that OEM policies and practices have not evolved to a point needed to support the great responsibility being shunted onto suppliers. There are still significant barriers in procedures, policies, and technology that create adversarial relationships when a partnership model is required for true integration of design efforts. This study considers organizational design theories to help explain the limitations of the American approach.; This dissertation also investigates the impacts of modularity on manufacturing outsource, product development practices, and supply chain coordination in the U.S. auto industry based on interviews conducted with automakers and suppliers from 2000–2003. While modularity has been accompanied by a major reorganization of the automotive supplier industry, innovations in manufacturing, and increasing reliance of suppliers to conduct and manage product development programs, this shift has not been accompanied by changes in the supply chain management infrastructure to encourage long-term partnerships. This is contrasted to the more gradual approach used by Toyota to develop an appropriate fit between product development, manufacturing, and supply chain management as it incorporates modularity on a selective basis.; Finally, this dissertation takes a detailed look at the product development practices within firms and between firms to investigate how the modularity phenomenon is changing product development practice at the project level; specifically, the automotive cockpit. The implications of modularity on both product development and supplier management practice are discussed. While module suppliers are experiencing increasing levels of program management responsibility with modularity, they are not receiving the commensurate sourcing decision authority necessary to help them manage modular programs. Evidence in this study also suggests that lead time savings with modularity are questionable, although assembly modules appear to be reaching acceptance as the dominant modular form in the U.S. auto industry at the turn of the century. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)